CURRENT ADDRESS:
Glenn Stephens
128 Spencer St
Tallapoosa GA 30176-1720
770.574.7071
Upon graduation I left immediately and went to Memphis and attended Draughon's Business
College for a year. While there I was in an auto accident that made me decide that I wanted to go
home which I did and began working in West Helena in the office at Bobbie Brooks Garment
Company. It was while working there that Betty and Mary Crabtree started a group playing
canasta during it's height of popularity and I was one of the group as well as a local young man
just home from his three year stint in the U. S. Army. That is how I met Glenn Stephens whom I
married four months later. Glenn was a member of the 1955 class at Central. He was employed
with Mohawk Rubber Company and our first home was in West Helena. Our first child, a
daughter, Leslie, was born there as well as our second child, a son, Tommy who was Phillips
County's New Year's baby for l963. We left Mohawk and Arkansas in l963 for employment with
another rubber manufacturer in Spartanburg, S. C. While in Spartanburg our third child, a
daughter, Laurel, was born in 1965. We lived there until 1968 and moved to Roanoke/Salem,
Virginia where Glenn resumed employment again with Mohawk Rubber Company. Maybe we
were just adventurous but each move was exciting and each move meant better things for Glenn
and us as a family. Then in 1971 Mohawk transferred him from their tire manufacturing
operation and made him Plant Manager of a retread rubber facility in Guntersville, Alabama. At
this point we were ready to settle in and I even went back to work now that our children were
older and was assistant city clerk and secretary to the Mayor of Guntersville. We felt as if this
small town near Huntsville, Alabama would be our permanent home. Not so! In late 1979 an
opportunity came Glenn's way for a position with a custom mix and retread rubber company in a
little town just 5 miles over the Alabama line into Georgia. So we became residents of
Tallapoosa, Georgia 25 years ago. After being with Associated Rubber Company for 10 years he
was named President of the company in 1989 and retained that position until he decided to go
into semi-retirement at the end of 1999. He still serves on the Board of Directors and works in an
advisory role. By the time we moved to Tallapoosa we had two children in college and one in
high school. We quickly grew to love the small town life and being located 1 hour drive from
Atlanta and 1 1/2 hour drive from Birmingham gave us the best of both worlds. Until the past
few years we attended many shows and sports events in Atlanta but now we find that we can just
enjoy these events as well or better sitting at home in front of the TV.
I worked for 2 years upon arriving in Tallapoosa as secretary of First Baptist Church and must
say that was an experience of a life time! Dealing with church members was quite different. I
gave that up in 1982 and decided that staying at home was what I was best at.
My interests have been varied and aside from being a wife, mom and grandmother I have found
time to belong to the Tallapoosa Garden Club for 15 years and served as President twice. Golf
was a challenge I took up in 1982 and played several times a week until the past couple of years.
I hope to get back on the course this year (believe me it is just for fun...nothing competitive).
Reading has always been an important part of my life as well and I still enjoy playing bridge
which I do once or twice a month with a small group here in Tallapoosa. I have never played
duplicate bridge like some of our classmates who have excelled in it. About 12 years ago we
bought a vacation home on St. George Island, Florida and Glenn and I spend as much time as we
can down there fishing and just enjoying island life! We go about 15 miles out in the Gulf when
the weather allows but find in the past couple of years we do more bay fishing. Could that be
age???
I had the privilege of care taker for my Mom beginning in 1989 when I moved her from West
Helena to Tallapoosa. She was able to maintain her own apartment for the first 7 years but the
last four were not good. She passed away in 2001 and I knew I had to keep busier to fill that void
so I enrolled in a quilting class and for a year made several quilted items and enjoyed it
thoroughly. Then the sewing bug hit me and I started designing and making diaper bags, totes
and/or handbags. In the past 2 years I have made at least 350 and sell many locally as well as on
ebay. A great hobby until the fad wears out!
In the past ten years Glenn and I have traveled a lot and hope to add China to our list of places
we have been within the year. Last year we had the great pleasure of going with Donna O'Pry
and Bob Lynn to Eastern Europe which included Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and
Romania. A wonderful trip I highly recommend! We have taken five cruises and experienced
the beauty of Australia and the Outback, New Zealand, the Scandanavian countries, St.
Petersburg, Russia, Alaska, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Greece. Several excursions we have just
flown and rented a car and gone on our own....Germany, Hawaii, Mexico, Nova Scotia and
Puerto Rico. I am sure we will make several more pilgrimages before we decide we are too old.
At any rate being a wife, homemaker and mother has been the greatest joy of my life! Had my
parents been able to afford college for me I am sure I would have followed that path but since
they were not I have never regretted the role I chose. I have had a wonderful husband and 3
fantastic children...our oldest daughter who received her BSW from the University of North
Alabama is now a paralegal and lives in north Alabama and has an 11 year old son. Our son
who is a graduate from Auburn Universtiy and is self-employed lives in Atlanta and has a 16 year
old son and a 14 year old daughter. Our youngest daughter is also a CPA and a graduate from
Auburn University and is Director of Corporate Tax office for Southwire Company in Carrollton,
Georgia. She has 2 boys ages 5 and 6 and lives 10 miles from us.
I have kept in contact with several of our fellow classmates through the years....Ann Lawhon
Stevens, Shirley Hicks Shipman, Richard Holland, Donna O'Pry Lynn, Charles Clark, Sandra
Porter and Dottie Herbert...all of whom are special people and with whom I have cherised
memories.
God has blessed me with excellent health and I always am busy doing something. Now that our
grandchildren are old enough to be involved in sports we stay busy back and forth to see them
play ball and our one granddaughter is a school cheerleader and of course we have to support her
as well in attending some of her games.
I am looking forward to seeing many of you in May and as time seems to pass faster these days it
will not be long before we gather together for our 50th! May God keep each of you safe until
then.
One of the prayers I have kept close to my heart for these many years is from St. Francis of Assisi
and I think it has helped me through any troubled times:
God, grant me Serenity
to accept what I cannot change,
courage to change the things
I can, and Wisdom to know the difference...
St. Francis of Assisi
Martha Griffin Stephens